Depression, pain catastrophizing and responsiveness to analgesics: A case study of chronic pain patients

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate whether depression and pain catastrophizing predict responsiveness to analgesics among chronic pain patients. The study was guided by four hypotheses: (i) Depression significantly predicts pain catastrophizing; (ii) Depression significantly predicts responsiveness to analgesics; (ii) Pain catastrophizing significantly predicts response to analgesics; and (iv) Depression and responsiveness to analgesics are moderated by pain catastrophizing. Linear regression was used to test the first three hypotheses; multiple linear regression was used to test hypothesis four. 119 respondents participated in this study and were each subjected to the pain catastrophizing scale: the geriatric depression scale and the numeric pain scale. The results showed that depression significantly predicted pain catastrophizing. Depression also significantly predicted responsiveness to analgesics. The results were, therefore, in agreement with the third hypothesis which state that pain catastrophizing significantly predicted responsiveness to analgesics. Pain catastrophizing was found to be an insignificant moderator between the relation of depression and responsiveness to analgesics.